SAM Magazine--October 20, 2006--Pennsylvania's Seven Springs Resort has announced that it will be withdrawing its limited Category 3 gaming license application after the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board determined that the reworked proposal would not comply with the current requirements of the gaming regulations.

The inability to secure a gaming license arose to due to conflicts with Major League Baseball regulations. The Nutting family, who purchased Seven Springs in July, are also investors in the Pittsburgh Pirates. Major League Baseball regulations do not allow team investors to be involved in any form of gaming.

The solution proposed by the resort to obtain the gaming license was to eliminate any interest that Seven Springs ownership would have in gaming at the resort. While this solution would have satisfied Major League Baseball's gaming guidelines, the current guidelines for gaming in Pennsylvania call for a Category 3 limited resort gaming license to be owned by the owner and operator of an established resort in which the limited gaming complex would be housed. The Pennsylvania guidelines effectively made gambling at Seven Springs a losing bet from the start.

Despite the decision, the new ownership will continue to invest in the resort, with the goal of developing it as a four-season family-friendly destination, including developing the park and pipe options during winter operation and retaining Planet Snow Design to develop the resorts freeride operations.

"Our focus is to improve upon what Seven Springs Mountain Resort is: a four-season, family-friendly resort that is absolutely committed to excellence in customer service and its stewardship of the environment," Robert Nutting, Chief Executive Officer of Ogden Newspapers. "We are committed to enhancing the resort experience with additional amenities and four-season attractions. A great example of this commitment is the new Superpipe and terrain park that will provide our guests with the premier snowboarding and extreme skiing experience in the East."

Last month the resort announced that excavating has already begun on the new terrain park and "Superpipe" that will open in time for the upcoming winter season. The resort has also purchased a second Zaugg grooming machine to allow for the extensive grooming of the new Superpipe, making it the only resort in the mid-Atlantic, and one of only two in the East, to operate two Zaugg grooming machines. \

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